Inside Tahrir Square: Meet the voices of the Egyptian protests

Martha Raddatz, Richard Coolidge & Jordyn Phelps

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Power Players•July 26, 2013

Inside Tahrir Square: Meet the voices of the Egyptian protests

On The Radar

The protests raging in the streets of Cairo are expected to grow even larger today, following a call from the Egyptian military for its backers to show support for the new government and stop “violence and terrorism.”

In this special edition of “On the Radar,” we go into central Cairo to bring you the voices of the Egyptian protestors – both those who are calling for President Mohammed Morsi to be returned to power and those who are supporting his ouster and want Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and the interim government to retain power.

“It’s not a coup,” says one woman who supports Gen. El-Sissi’s overthrow of Morsi. She says the Egyptian economy has suffered under Morsi’s leadership.

“Mohammed Morsi, he didn’t make anything for the people,” she says. “We have a lot of people, they didn’t have … any food; they didn’t have enough work.”

Asked if Morsi should have been allowed to finish his five-year term instead of being removed from power by the military, the woman replies that the overthrow was justified.

“We gave him our vote, and we take our vote away from him again,” she says.

While many Egyptians are giving their unquestioning support to the new military leadership, others have come to the streets to call for Morsi’s return to power. Morsi’s supporters say they will not stop protesting until the ousted president is returned to power.

“God willing, we believe that Morsi is coming back,” a pro-Morsi protestor says. “We wanted to see democracy in Egypt. We went to the ballot, we put our voice in the boxes and we wanted democracy, but we didn’t see democracy…I want to see Egypt like America.”

The protestor says he does not belong to the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, as many pro-Morsi supporters do, and insists that rallies in support of Morsi are not violent and will continue until he is restored to power.

“We will not do any aggressive action,” the man says. “We will wait here in the sun waiting for Morsi, and god willing, he will come.”

Another young woman expressed distress at the ongoing unrest in Egypt.

“Egypt will be unstable, a mess,” said a 15-year-old girl, who supports Morsi. “it should not work this way…every president who is elected gets ousted.”

To hear more from the Egyptian protestors, and to see what it’s like among the protests of Cairo, check out this episode of “On the Radar.”